Chris Hodges - Beyond the Numbers
So awesome. Well, welcome today to week number three of a five-part series that we're simply calling "Life, Money, Hope". I'll tell you more about that in just a second, but let me look straight into the camera and say hello to all of our campuses, our locations all across Alabama, the two in Georgia. Of course, what an incredible honor and privilege it is to bring these services and then really, all that we are as a church into more than 22 of Alabama's Department of Corrections facilities. God bless you guys today. But we have to reserve our shout out today for our newest permanent location in the great city of Huntsville. Come on one more time, Grantsville, say a big hello. God bless you guys.
And I've been getting reports all day that every service has been completely packed, and God bless you guys. I know a lot of you are visiting our church for the very first time, and we're so honored that you've chosen to check out Church of the Highlands. God bless you. I want you guys to know in Huntsville that that happened completely debt free because of the faithfulness of a lot of people. And honestly, sometimes I think we make, the way we talk about it, the giving and how we handle finances around here, looks so easy that we forget to remember that it's really, it was the tithe of a single mom, who maybe who didn't even have it, who was just faithful to give, that made those facilities, those rooms, those cameras, what's on the stage in the children's area. I wanna say thank you.
I know that when you give that was hard-earned sweat, toil. You worked for it, and then you honored God with it. Can we put our hands together one more time, and thank God for every person. God bless you guys. I mean it. We're so glad that all of you guys are joining us today for this continuation of a series that began in my heart around Thanksgiving time when I was in prayer. I took a week or so off during Thanksgiving time to think about the new year. I was praying through the 21 days of prayer, thinking about the word of the year, which I really believe this is going to be a year of miracles. In every part of me, I have this great expectation of God doing things in ways that's going to blow our minds.
And I don't know what your theology is or your background is, but listen to me, we have a God who is powerful. He's a miracle-working God. I'm talking about saving marriages and healing bodies. I truly believe God's gonna show great miracles in 2024. Can I hear a good amen, everybody? You believe that? I do. I really do. But at the same time, it was almost like in my prayer time, I saw the other end of that spectrum, where there might be some challenges in 2024 that are beyond normal. And not that we need more than what we already have, but I heard the Spirit of God say to me, I felt like, "Prepare the people. Prepare them for tough days". And I don't know if it's just because, you know, maybe an election year. Those usually have a lot of, a lot of activity in it.
Of course, we have crazy things happening on the world stage right now. There's a lot of uncertainty even, what's going on globally and with wars and I don't know, there's just a lot happening. And, you know, the Bible never makes a promise that those days aren't gonna come, but there is the promise that you can be an overcomer. Jesus said it this way: "In this world you will have tribulation". You'll have tough days, but take heart, and this is a take heart series. Take heart because I've overcome the world. In other words, there are some things that you can put in place on those days that will separate you from what the experience is like for everybody else.
So in week number one, I talked to you about hope. I mean, the people who have hope have this anchored soul. So when there are storms, there's bad days, but I'm not moving like everybody else. Last week, Charlotte brought this beautiful message on, and when you get your mind right, when you have the mind of Christ and you're thinking how God wants you to think, you're way more stable and secure than others. In this series, we're gonna talk about marriage and relationships because Lord knows when relationships are right, everything's right. And when relationships are bad, it doesn't matter how good or bad it is on the outside, that really, when the home is good and marriage and relationships are right, you have peace in your soul.
And by the way, I'm even gonna bring a message in this series on what do you do when you've already messed up your whole life? What do you do when you're already up to your eyeballs in debt? What do you do when you feel like you almost gone too far to get it repaired? I'm gonna show you, in the final installment of this series, how you can climb your way out of any trap the devil has laid for you or one you've dug for yourself because God is a redeeming God. Can I hear a good amen everybody? All right. So a lot of exciting things in this series. But today, I wanna bring a message on the topic of money, and before you put your defenses up, this has nothing to do with generosity, with giving.
This is all for you. Every part of this is to help you have some peace because here's what I know, and that is: if there's an area where you have a soul that is stirred, or maybe a fight in the home, or whatever's going on in your life, it's probably related in some way to the area of money. The Bible says it this way: "People who want to get rich," so if have a bad mindset about money, "they fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction". Watch this. Not money, but the love of it. If you have a wrong mindset about it, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for it, constantly thinking about it, and again, I would submit to you the wrong way, have wandered from the faith and have pierced themselves with many kinds of griefs.
And my goal today is actually to ungrief you, to take the stress out of it. I wanna tell you my story. A lot of you that know me know my story. I was raised in a very, very healthy money culture in my home. My dad was a brilliant financial mind. He was the legislative auditor for the state of Louisiana. Dad was very, very strict, but in a loving way. But Dad didn't let us cut any corners. I cut the grass, front yard. My brother did the backyard every Saturday while Dad supervised. He wouldn't let us edge because we couldn't do it like he wanted it. But anyway, he let us cut the grass. And our lawn looked like it was cut with scissors. It was to perfection in every way. We actually vacuumed the house every day after we got home from school before dad came home. He wanted the house freshly vacuumed every single day.
I kind of resented those growing up a little bit. I thought it was a little bit too much. And now that I look over my life, I'm very, very grateful for the way I was raised. Even at eight years old, dad, I'll never forget this, on a Saturday morning, came and laid across my bed. He says, "I want to talk to you about money". And I'm eight years old. I didn't have any money. And so he laid across and says, "I want to talk about money because next week," it was in the summertime, "I'm going to take the day off, and we're going to go open a checking account. And you're going to have a checking account". I had a checking account at eight years old. Young people, a checking account is this thing where, no.
So anyway... and I never forgot my first interest payment back in these days. You know, they actually sent me a letter saying, "You've earned interest," and it was a dime scotch-taped to the letter. Got me a dime. I'll never forget that. Even when we went on vacation, Dad was very, very generous. He was frugal and generous at the same time, which is a great mixture, I think. So we go on vacation. He says, "Now look, if we're all doing it, if we're all eating, if we're all going to the amusement park, that's on me. But if you ever want something that we're not all doing, that's on you. And I'm going to give you an envelope". And he gives all three of us an envelope of money, cash money. And he says, "Now if we come to the first gas station," or Stuckey's, y'all remember the Stuckey's everybody, right?
And he said, "When you get there, if you want something and we're not all doing it, look in your envelope, and if there's money in there, the answer's yes. And if there's not any money in there, the answer's no. Don't ask me. Ask yourself". And he was teaching me how to budget. I learned all of this. At 13 years old, I got my first job, not because our family needed money, he wanted to teach me work ethic. I have been working since I was 13. I've never not had a job since I was 13. So I didn't do sports. Of course, I didn't have the equipment to pull it off anyway. Come on everybody, right? So, but I didn't, we didn't do that. Dad taught me. The bus actually dropped me off at a landscape, a nursery and landscape company at 3 o'clock every day, and I worked a few hours every afternoon.
This is how I was raised with this work ethic. Again, now I look back over my life, and I'm very, very grateful. Dad was a principle-centered person. He said, you know, "You give 10% to God first to the local church where you worship, give 10% to yourself, save it, and learn how to live on 80%". And my whole life, and Tammy and I will tell you, we've lived this way. We have had meager years, very, very meager years. In fact, when we first got married, I was a youth pastor, and they didn't pay me enough hardly to pay that apartment rent. And so we actually, you know, I taught piano lessons. I had 30 piano students. We actually got us a little dachshund from the pet store, and we bred that girl about five times. Anyway. So, bless her heart.
Oh Gretchen, she served us well. And, you know, made $400 a puppy. You know, a lot of our first furniture came from what we call puppy money. And we just learned. We learned how to live this way. So when we started the church 23 years ago, I brought in a lot of these principles. These are just godly principles that I'm, look at my eyes, has brought me not easy life always, but a lot of peace. This is just not an area I've ever struggled. I'm actually naturally good with money and numbers. Math was the only subject that I always made As in. I was never very good at Science or English or any of those. But I understood numbers.
So when we started the church, I decided that we were gonna lead the church the same way. We actually wrote it into the bylaws of the church government. The incorporation documents say that a budget of our year can never be more than 90% of the previous year's income. So every year, and we've grown every year, so we go into every year with a 10% margin, which means I'm never standing in this spot needing you guys to give. There's never been a single Sunday where I was hoping, "Wow, I hope the offering's good today". We've always set ourselves up in that kind of way. And today, here we are with locations all across the state and completely debt-free and operate the church.
Last year, I actually report to our trustees tonight, I have a trustees meeting who are our non-staff elders, I meet with them tonight, and I will report to them, they oversee all the finances of the church, that we operated last year on 68% of what you guys gave, which allowed us, last year, to give over $20 million to missions, $5 million more than the previous year. Come on, everybody. And all of our buildings are paid for! Come on give God the greatest praise, everybody. So I want y'all to see me today as Pastor Chris, Uncle Chris. Come on everybody, right? And I wanna just help you. I wanna do what my dad did for me. I'm gonna do it for you because there's nothing more than I want for you that this be an area that absolutely is under your control more than you know for you to experience God's peace and God's blessing.
Jesus talked about it a whole lot more than I do. About one out of ten verses in the New Testament are about money. Jesus talked about money more than heaven and hell. If you remember the parables of the stories that Jesus, many times they were made up stories to illustrate spiritual truth, they're called parables, 16 of the 38, so nearly half, are about money and possessions. There are over 500 verses about prayer and faith in your Bible, but there's 2,000 about your money and your possessions. Now why is that? Why is there such a focus on this? I don't want you to miss this because this is the spiritual part that you have to understand in order to adopt God's truth, and that is money's spiritual. It's very spiritual. In fact, Jesus said it this way: "Wherever your treasure is, that's where your heart is".
Look in my eyes, everybody. Everybody ready for me? And there's nothing that God wants more than your heart. And he just absolutely cannot get it if this is an area of our life that is out of order. So you'll see it all the way through Scripture. When John the Baptist was preparing for Jesus's ministry, Luke chapter 3, he said, "Repent. Repent of your sins". And when they did, the very first area, go read it yourself, he said, "Now give back to everybody that you've stolen, and if you've been a tough person to work for, you need to be nicer to your people". They always addressed those issues. When Jesus had the rich young ruler, he said, man, "Go sell what you have and give it to the poor".
And the Bible says he went away sad. Salvation did not come to his house. Luke chapter 19, when Jesus met with Zacchaeus, had lunch with him in Luke chapter 19, Zacchaeus came out being very, very generous, and Jesus said, "Salvation has come to your house". Why is there this connection? What is going on with all of that? Why is there this connection? I don't know that I fully understand it. But it is just an area of our lives that can pierce us with griefs or put us in peace. And Billy Graham actually said it this way: "If a person gets their attitude toward money straight, it actually will almost help straighten out every other area of their life".
Now why is that? Because there is a spirit, don't forget this, there's a spirit on money. So Jesus said it this way. He taught it. He said, "No servant," and you're a servant. I'm a servant, "can serve two masters; for you're either gonna hate one or love the other," so one of those is gonna control your life, "you'll be loyal to one and despise the other," and watch how he ends it, "You cannot serve both God and mammon". Now this is a created English word that does not exist in our English dictionary. It's what we call in theology a transliteration, where they take the original language word, "mammon" in the Greek, which was "Mammonas," and they just create an English word because we didn't have one.
So what is Mammonas? Well, it's actually capitalized. That's why in some translations, it actually puts the word money with a capital M, because it's not actually talking about money, it's talking about the god of money. Mammonas was the Syrian god of riches that came out of Babylon. Babylon means "sown in confusion". And for a lot of people, you don't even know it sometimes, but you're actually following a god of riches that is sown in confusion. Let me say it this way. If your life has confusion in this area, there might be a chance that you bought into some of the principles and the theology of a different god other than our God, the true Living God. You've fallen to god of mammon. And it's happening all over.
That's why you see... Tammy and I watched the documentary yesterday just about this athlete who made all this money, and then just squandered it all in alcohol and how miserable, how he was even planning to kill himself after he had spent all the money, that none of it actually satisfied. What is that? There's a spirit on it. And the simple thinking says, "Oh, just get more. You'll be happier". And all of us know that's just not true. In fact, there's a book, and I've shared this with you before, it just bears repeating because it's both funny and sad, that there was a book years ago that was written called "The Day America Told the Truth". And the book basically did anonymous surveys on a variety of topics to see how people actually think. If they were honest, what would they actually say? And one of the questions was: what would you be willing to do for $10 million? And here are America's answers. Brace yourself.
Twenty-five percent would abandon their entire family. Twenty-three percent would become a prostitute for a week or more. Sixteen percent would give up their American citizenship. Ten percent would withhold testimony, letting a murderer go free. This one's heartbreaking. Seven percent would kill a stranger. And 3% would put their kids up for adoption. Some of y'all thinking, I'll do that for free right now. Just, you can have them. You should have seen the car ride over here. You can have them.
So, let's get God's perspective. So to get God's perspective, let me expose the world's perspective. Let me be very clear. I'm not knocking the world's perspective totally. But let me give you what the world would do if they were giving you advice. I've actually, you don't know this about me, but I actually did this before I moved to Birmingham. I was like a financial planner in our church. If our church back home in Baton Rouge had people who were trying to get out of debt or get their money straight or get in a budget, they sent everybody to me. I have helped at least, conservatively speaking, more than 2,000 couples get out of debt, get on budgets. This is just because I get it. I understand it. I love studying it. So I've been to financial seminars.
In fact, two weeks ago, I attended another one, completely secular financial seminar, just so I can keep learning and growing. It was fabulous. But there is a numbers only approach. So the secular and just numbers only approach. And they basically would give you what's called the five laws of financial management. There are five things. The first one is they would tell you you need to earn as much as you can. So earning income is everything. So work two jobs if you have to, move to another city if you have to, just get that promotion, earn, earn, earn, earn, do whatever it takes to make more money.
Second law they would tell you is that you need to get control of your spending. You will never have freedom unless what you spend is lower than what you make. They will talk to you about margin, and then if they're helping you get out of debt, they're gonna talk to you about what's called the debt snowball, which is where you take your margins. When you pay off one, you don't raise your standard of living, you actually take the amount that you were paying on the one you just paid off and add it to that amount. And so that what you're paying off grows until you actually pay off debt. I've actually helped literally thousands of people create this debt snowball and get out of debt. We can actually predict the exact date that it's gonna happen, which gives them a lot of assurances. It's a lot of fun. It's actually pretty cool.
The third area they would talk to you about, the financial law, would be saving. They would say, "Look, you need to have money for emergencies, contingencies, the washer to break," right? You have to have a little cushion that you're, just for when all hell breaks loose, for a rainy day. And they would say to take about 20% of what you make every month, that would be the goal, is that whatever your monthly amount is, take 20% of that and use it for savings. Americans is way lower than that. In fact, the total amount that most Americans, look at the average that most Americans have in savings, that's only about $8,000. And so actually, they would say, "No, no, no. You need at least three months of your salary in savings just for that bad day".
The fourth area they would talk to you about is investing. This is when it gets fun. Most people never get here because they never get the first three in order. But this is where you're not working for money. Money's working for you. Now you're growing your money. Most don't invest. They upgrade. And so when their money goes up, they just take everything up with it. And so, for instance, I actually looked this fact up yesterday from the American Auto Association. The average car payment in America is $726 a month. So if you take that $726 and gave it back to yourself, so you weren't doing it on a car, and put it in some kind of IRA, if you did that at 25, at 65, you would have over $7 million. I hope you enjoy the car, okay? So, yeah, right? But most people don't ever get there.
And then they would reluctantly talk to you about this one: giving. They don't really, most, if they're not believers, don't have much to say about giving. And that's why... I don't know if you... guess in your own mind the amount that Americans actually give to charities or to just give away. It's 3% is what Americans give away. Which is, you know, okay, I guess. Christians aren't much better. They give about 3.8%. So, but for Christians, this is nothing wrong with this, by the way. But for Christians, we don't live just with this perspective. As Christians, we take this numbers only approach, and I'm gonna give you a message today that I'm calling "Beyond the Numbers," and it's God's approach.
And I'm gonna give you what God would have to say about all five of these areas so that you can decide if you're gonna put them in your life or not. All I can tell you is God's way actually works. And so the Bible teases us with verses like this: "Now this is what the LORD Almighty says," and he's saying it to somebody in this room or at one of our locations today, "You need to give careful thought to your ways," maybe what you're doing is actually not the right way, "You planted much," see if this makes sense to anybody in this room, "You've planted much, but you're harvesting little," it's not that you're not a lazy person. It's just not working. "You eat, but you never have enough". You actually have a dissatisfaction going on in this area. "You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but you're not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it".
Some of y'all, that's your theme verse of life right there, right? "This is what the LORD Almighty says," he says it twice. Anytime in Scripture the Bible says something twice, it's for emphasis reasons. Hey, maybe there's another way. Then you come in the New Testament, it would say things like this: "Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar"? Let me add: where is the financial planner? "Where is the philosopher? Has not God made the foolish things to confound the wise"? So I'm gonna encourage you, what I'm trying to tease you into before I give them to you is: hey, what would your life look like in 2024 if you actually followed God's principles like Tammy and I have?
I bought into this early on in my life. And all I can tell you, and this church has, and all I can tell you is look around. It has worked, and there's peace in our lives. You know, we have no trouble trusting him with our eternal destinies, forgiving our sins and taking us to a place you've never seen before called heaven. Why wouldn't you trust him in this area too? And just see that it works. And honestly, you don't need me to prove it. Ask somebody. Ask somebody else or just prove it to yourself. Remember the very first area was the area of earning. Just earn, earn, earn, earn, do whatever it takes to earn. And the Bible would actually say something different. The Bible would actually give you this thought: that calling is more important than compensation.
There's nothing wrong with making a lot of money, but I am challenging every person who is just doing whatever it takes and making the only decision for your life decisions based on can I make more money? I have seen people move to big cities, away from friends, away from church, just because the employer was gonna give you more money, only to find yourself there incredibly miserable. Because compensation, ain't nothing wrong with it. Come on, can I get a better amen, everybody, right? But I'm gonna tell you something that will only give you satisfaction and real joy, and that is knowing what you're on this planet to do. We don't just need money to live on. We need something to live for. And that's why I'm asking you. I'm begging you. Trust God. Follow your calling.
Now, I can say this with some level of moral authority. Because that's what Tammy and I did 23 years ago. We moved here. We didn't know anybody in Birmingham, anybody in the state of Alabama, for that matter. We didn't know how to plan a church. We didn't have any money to plan a church. Nobody was willing to help us. Other than that, we was ready to go. But I heard God say to me at the Starbucks at the Summit up here in Birmingham, "You need to move to those people on that traffic jam down there on Highway 280 because you're gonna pastor those people". And we didn't know a soul, and we packed up everything we had in a trailer, not a truck, a trailer, y'all. And we came to Birmingham, and look what the Lord has done. And it's been a miracle ever since.
And I've waited for 23 years to even tell you this part, but we could only afford to pay ourself about 40% of what I was making as an associate pastor. So we just figured it out. And I have my kids right here on the front row. They'll tell you. I mean. And I'm not telling you a sad story. I'm just telling you because I'm very, very blessed. I'm a very, very blessed person. But you know, we have three bedrooms and five kids. Do the math, everybody. And we just figured it out. And we were grateful to do it. Why? Because calling was more important than compensation. And it's true for your life too. Paul said it this way: "I consider my life worth nothing to me, if I just finish the race and complete the task that the Lord has given me," and for him, it was bringing the gospel to the Gentiles, testifying to the glory of God's grace.
And I've seen it work in our lives in so many ways. And I know it'll work in your life as well. By the way, not all following God has to follow ministry. I love the story of David Green of Hobby Lobby. He's become a dear friend and, as most of you know, been very, very generous to Highlands College, very, very generous, and I'm very, very grateful. But if you read his book, and I highly recommend it, "Leadership Not By the Book," he'll tell you the story that he had pressure on him to be in the ministry by his parents and his siblings. And he knew he had a call of God on his life to start a business called Hobby Lobby. And God told him, and it made no business sense, to give 50% of everything they made away.
And today, God has supernaturally blessed that company. And to God be the glory. We've become one of the many beneficiaries of their generosity. I think we ought to put our hands together and just thank God for them. You know, just, yeah. Remember the second law is all about spending. And here's what the Bible would say about spending, and that is that "contentment is more important than consumerism". And I would like to just say to you, I'm just saying this in a loving way, please receive it from me. I'm really trying to help you today. Americans are plagued by discontentment. In fact, most people actually believe that they would worry less if they had more. And it's actually statistically the opposite is true.
Jesus said it this way in Luke chapter 12: "Don't always be wishing for what you don't have. For real life and real living are not related to how rich we are". The apostle Paul said it this way: "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. And I have learned the secret of being content," I would wish this on you so badly, "knowing the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or living in want". Contentment, let me give you a definition of it, is not the fulfillment of what I want but the realization of what I already have. And the happiest people say, "This is enough".
So that when a blessing, a raise or something comes along, you're almost surprised and grateful for it instead of expecting it. And it's just, it makes all the difference in the world when we have this spirit of contentment. One of my regrets because of the world right now that we live in is that I can't take you on more missions trips. When we first started the church, we had an entire office of our church just to make sure everybody that was a member of Highlands went on at least one missions trip in their lifetime and better yet, one every year, if you could. And not just for the purpose of blessing the missionary and serving them.
Honestly, if you ask the missionaries, we were more of a bother than a blessing. We actually got way more out of it than what we gave. And actually, that's what I liked about it. Because I would bring people to places to see people who have less and to see how much happier they were than us. There's nothing like going to an orphanage. We used to go to this little place in the Monterrey area of Mexico, just outside it, to this orphanage with little kids playing who have nothing. They spent hours with a rock out in the field just throwing it around, right? And just the happiness on their face and the way they worship, and it reminds us of contentment.
My grandmother, who is my hero, on my dad's side, Mama Hodges, didn't have anything. My grandfather died when I was very, very young, and she lived as a widow for a long time. And she was on just a government income, you know? But I watched her start January making her gifts for Christmas. I visited her almost every week, and she would be over there crocheting little potholders and Christmas ornaments. And that was our Christmas presents from Mama Hodges. And she took the little and turned it into much and honestly had a ton of peace. I was with her the day she died. We actually talked her into moving to Birmingham so we could care for her better because my mom and dad were here. And she lived at my mom and dad's house, and it was after a Sunday.
I drove after the third service, drove over to Chelsea, where mom and dad lived, and went into Mama's room, and she was sitting there. And she had horrible arthritis. Her knuckles were all huge. And she was just sitting there in her chair, and near the end of her life, she didn't speak much. And she was sitting in that little chair, and I'll never forget it. It's one of the greatest memories of my life. I went over to her. I don't even know why I did it on this day, but I said, "Mama, would you lay your hands on me and bless me"? And I had to grab her hand and put it on my head, and I knelt by her feet. And I could hear her kind of grimacing a little bit. And I said, "Mama, are you okay"?
And this is the last words I ever heard out of her mouth because she died that afternoon. After I left, she went to be with the Lord. And these are the last words I heard out of her mouth. I said, "Mama, are you okay"? She goes, "I'm better off than most". It just marked me. There she is with absolutely nothing. She's better off than most. She loved Jesus with all her heart, and you know, that afternoon she was with the Lord in a perfect body and a perfect life and can't wait to see her, you know? That's contentment.
The third area is the area of saving. Piano's playing, and I got three more to go. Come on somebody, right? I will always end on time. Don't you get nervous. But saving, nothing wrong with savings. I have a savings account. Okay, this church, we don't really. We have a savings account, but it's more for cash flow purposes, for the projects that we're involved in. But savings can have a bad mindset on it when you're doing it for independence. Because we don't need to be independent. You don't need to be self taken care of, you need to be God taken care of. Because there's a lie, and I'm exposing it, that you can accumulate your way to security.
And don't ever have that. I mean, I don't have any problem with you saving money for whatever you're saving it for. But it can't be because I don't wanna have to call out to God to help me. I'm gonna take care of myself. No. The Bible says in Proverbs, "The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; and they Imagine it a wall too high to scale," in other words, I'm gonna build something around me where no enemy can get to me, and it's just simply not true. In fact, I can prove it with this one question if you'll answer it in your own head. How much would you have to make to secure your future against all imaginable eventualities? You ready for the answer? More than you currently have. Which makes you hold on.
And God had never caused us to be a hold on person. Did you know that statistically poorer people are more generous than rich people? Like by a lot. You know why? Because they have no choice but to put their hope in God. And that's why Tammy and I, God be my witness, we pray this prayer every month while we do our finances. Every month we pray Proverbs chapter 30, the sayings of Agur: "Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you," it's powerful, "and say, 'Who's the Lord?'" I don't need him. "Or I may become poor and steal, and dishonor the name of my God". And that's why we make a decision, this church has, we have, and I'm asking you to, that I will not trust in riches. I will only trust in Him who richly provides. This is good preaching today, y'all.
So the fourth area, remember is investing. Nothing wrong with investing. Tammy and I invest, okay? But you gotta make sure you know what the purpose of your investments are. And that's why the Bible would teach stewardship, not ownership. Stewardship is the old English word for management. And it basically says that I invest with the owner's purposes in my mind. In other words, I'm investing, but I'm not just investing here, I'm investing there. And that's why your church and your giving, we work so hard to invest for treasures in heaven. We are investing with the owner's intent in mind, and we all should do the same. Because we believe God doesn't own my tie, he owns me, everything, and I'm stewarding it all for his purposes.
Stewarding, stewardship is not about giving more, it's about managing with the goals of the owner in mind. So Jesus said it this way: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth," again, nothing wrong with it. He's not prohibiting an investment account. He's just saying there's a priority. "Because that's where moth and rust destroy, thieves break in and steal, but store up treasures in heaven". Put your investment in places that puts people in heaven with Jesus. And here's the last one. Remember it was the one on giving, and this is all I would say about giving. And that is you want generosity not misery.
I don't know if you know this, but misery is the opposite of generosity. A miser is someone who holds. A generous person is someone who lets it go. And the happiest people I know or the people who live their lives, look at me, open-handed, say, "Chris, I don't have anything". Yeah, you do. You have a face. You have a smile. You can give that away. If you have arms, you can give a hug away. Like, you do. If you can start thinking, I am blessed and I'm going to look for ways to give whatever I do have away to somebody else. They're the happiest people on the planet. Open-handed. Open-handed. Your church is. I want to live that way. I want you to live that way. Why? Because Jesus said, "It is more blessed".
"Makarios" in the Greek literally means happy, but not like somebody told a joke happy. It's happy in here. So, early on before I became a senior pastor, somebody gave me this. It's framed. It's a quote by a lady named Angela Cornelia. And I'm gonna throw this at you just as kind of a closing thought. It'll help you. I have looked at this every day of my life for, oh my goodness, my whole married life, 37, 38 years. Here it is: "Debt is bad, saving is good, giving is fun, and stuff is meaningless". It's like this is a God perspective. This is how God works. And if we start embracing that, look at me church, peace, peace. I don't know what 2024 is gonna throw at us, but man, if we have this attitude, a biblical mindset, you're gonna be all right. I promise you. Why? God's way. Say it out loud. God's way. It works.
So Father, I pray for these amazing people. I'm praying, God, that we all realign our hearts to biblical values, biblical truth. God, your way does work, not just in this area, but every area. Just receive this, and God, I'm breaking the bondage of mammon off our lives. God, I pray for freedom, blessing. God, bless your people as we adopt your truth. Bless your people, I pray.
If you're here today and you feel the knock of God on your heart's door and you're under conviction that you've been living your life your way, you've been living your life away from God and you're ready to come home today, I'm not even talking about joining this church, I'm talking about you're ready to join Jesus, you're ready to give him your life, can I pray for you? This is for those who aren't Christians, or maybe you are a Christian, but you've wandered away. And this day, February 18, is gonna be the day you came back home and surrendered your life fully to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Say, PC, what would I have to do? Just pray this prayer and mean it. I'm gonna help you with the words, but you've gotta pray it. This comes out of Romans chapter 10. If you'll confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord. So say that.
Today, God, I make you the Lord of my life. Jesus, be the Lord of my life. I turn my life to you. I repent. I ask you to forgive me of my sin. Come into my life because I believe you are the Son of God who rose from the dead. Today I surrender my life completely to you. Say that to him. Save me. Thank you for saving me. In your name I pray, amen.